ISL - INDIAN SUPER LEAGUE

    

Simao announced as NorthEast United's marquee signing

The 35-year-old who has plied his trade for Atletico Madrid and Benfica shall don the colours of NorthEast United...

Football fans in the north east are set to witness a Europa League winner play in their own backyard  as Simao Sabrosa joins NorthEast United FC for the second season of the Indian Super League (ISL).

Sabrosa has had an illustrious career wherein he has won several club honours such as Copa Del Rey and Europa League amongst others.

The 35-year-old has made 85 appearances from the Portugal national team and scored on 22 occasions

He started his career with Sporting CP before moving to Spanish giants, Barcelona. Thereafter, he served Benfica for six long years.

A move to Spain once again beckoned as he was part of the Atletico Madrid squad between 2007 and 2010.

Following a couple of seasons with Turkish giants, Besiktas, he was roped in by Espanyol, Barcelona’s arch city rivals.

However, since the end of 2014 season, he hasn’t played professionally. It is also reliably learnt that the Portuguese was on the lookout for an ISL club last season but a move eventually didn’t materialize.

Dempo appoint Katz Naidoo as technical director

The Goan club have appointed the South African to oversee their resurgence after being relegated last season…

Katz Naidoo has been roped in by Dempo SC as their technical director for the 2015-16 season.

The South African coach came to India as a technical director for Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) but the latter chose not to extend his contact.

It is believed that Naidoo, with his experience will oversee the club’s youth development programme and also help them rebuild their squad for the ensuing season.

He previously worked for Maritzburg United as head of development and helped them win the metropolitan league for a couple of seasons

Constantine: 'I felt that the whole team needed to be r

evamped'

he Indian coach wrote that he didn't repent handing 13 debuts to players in four games, as he calls it a necessary evil...

Stephen Constantine, the coach of the Indian national football team, has revealed that handing debuts to 13 players in four matches isn’t the ideal manner to begin their 2018 World Cup qualification campaign, though he did hint his side were denied atleast a point against Oman after India had a goal disallowed in the second half, citing the away team’s lack of protest a clear indication the goal was legitimate.

He also praised Guam for their game-play, citing the obvious difference in the coaching received by the players of US origin in the side who he claims start training between ages four-to-six, than Indians who start a decade later.

India lost both World Cup qualifiers getting beaten by a 2-1 margin at home by Oman, whilst losing 21 away to Guam, with Sunil Chhetri the only Indian goal-scorer in both the defeats.  

“I will start with the Oman game, seeing as that was our first game. It was always going to be a difficult one but we really gave ourselves a mountain to climb going down a goal inside the first minute. We have also added a number of new faces the team as I felt that the whole team needed to be revamped given our recent past and that must be taken into account,” explained the gaffer, in earnest, on his blog.

The 52-year-old castigated the ‘silly penalty’ conceded to give Oman the lead after India had snatched one back. 

“In four games we have used 13 players for the first time, and while that is not ideal, it is a necessary evil for us at the moment as we try to re-establish ourselves in Asia. We fought back well and when Sunil Chhetri fired home a lovely goal we looked like we could get something from the game. But a silly penalty sent us into the dressing room 1-2 down.”

With regards to his players’ performance in the second half and that infamous goal which remained disallowed, for an offside decision against Robin Singh, despite the team’s protests Constantine maintained his team deserved a draw, volleying shots at the officials.

“The second half was much better and we started to show signs of life and had Oman on the back foot for parts of the second half. A well worked corner saw us equalize and everyone was headed back to the center-circle when the linesman put his flag up and signalled offside. This a full five seconds after the goal went it and no one from Oman protesting! It was a really poor decision to say the least and though we tried very hard, we could not get the momentum back after the disallowed goal, which was in the 65th. We were buzzing at that time so anything could have happened. After all the difficulties we faced, we could have sneaked a very credible draw so there were some good signs for me.”

However, all the positives from the loss to Oman were washed away in a sombre defeat at the hands of tiny Guam, who sat 31 places below the Indians in the officials FIFA rankings. He used this occasion to point out that Guam’s players could have been more technically astute than the Indians, who he says don’t meet coached to develop them early enough, unlike their Guam counter-parts, many of whom were in the United States and probably had better coaching early on.

“Now to the Guam game, of course given their rankings we were supposed to beat them easily! I will start by saying we did not play well, and Guam deserved to win,” started the Blue Tigers’ coach.

He further analysed, “Guam used, and quite rightly so, 11 players who have had some experience in the US professional game. You can talk about what levels they were at but your average American sees his first coach at the many summer soccer camps around the country from the ages of four-to-six, whereas our Indian players are lucky if they see a coach by the time there 13-14. So there is a huge gap when it comes to the development of our players and those based in the US.”

It is to be remembered that the British-Cypriot coach initiated an Army training camp for the Tigers ahead of their qualification campaign in June. Expounding on the initiative, the coach revealed, “The much highlighted trip the Army Camp was a great experience (although it was tough). It did a great many things for us as a team and in the future we will look to bring in experts from other fields that we can learn from to help us improve. I would like to thank the Army again for allowing us to use their facility and of course a special mention to the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) Col Mehta, who kindly arranged and supervised the trip. It was truly an awesome day."